‘McDonald writes with such charm and self-deprecating wit that the intricacy and musicology of Gran Partita feels completely natural, as if a melody that has always existed but we’re just starting to hear it now. Unapologetically smart, thoughtful and convoluted, but a sheer pleasure from page to page. All I know is that to write poetry this fluent is to single-handedly tune an orchestra, hold your breath and raise the baton.’

- LUKE KENNARD

‘Unexpected, funny, insightful and sometimes alarmingly honest, I found this collection deeply touching and thought provoking.’

- SIR SIMON RATTLE

Can you be too charismatic? Can you envy yourself? Can your leg be 'ever so slightly on fire'? The questions Gran Partita asks, directly and indirectly, are funny and disquieting, like being surprised by the sound of your own laugh: a poem, perhaps, is a mortifying joke, music at a funeral, a scrubbing that 'makes the pot dirty with itself.' Read this book to learn who perfected
perfection, to find the right word for the dream.

- ELISA GABBERT

‘Unpredictable, agile, and beautifully irreverent’

- ALICE MILLER

'In Gran Partita, McDonald, explores the many living and dead
and endlessly reincarnating metaphors music contains. The
funny poems made me want to be a musician, and the sad ones
made me not want to be one. Finally, the poems that were
both sad and funny helped me remember that I was a musician
whether I wanted to be one or not'

- MARK LEIDNER

‘Gran Partita is a remarkable debut... Matthew McDonald
succeeds in articulating the inexpressible — and in doing so,
offers a collection that is brilliant, original, and captivating’

- LISA KELLY